Your complimentary articles

You’ve read all of your complimentary articles for this month. To have complete access to the thousands of philosophy articles on this site, please

If you are a subscriber please sign in to your account.

To buy or renew a subscription please visit the Shop.

If you are a print subscriber you can contact us to create an online account.

Philosophy & Literature

What Makes A Book Great?

Colin Stott critiques the critical thinking of Matthew Arnold and F.R. Leavis.

We commonly associate the Victorian era with religious revivalism, yet many underwent a crisis of faith during this period. The poet and critic Matthew Arnold (1822-88) realised that established religion could no longer counter the impact that rapid industrialisation and trade cycles were inflicting on the poor, nor could it resist the incessant drive for material gain amongst the powerful. Religion, for many, was failing to invest life with purpose:

The sea of faith
Was once, too, at the full, and round earth’s shore
Lay like the folds of a bright girdle furl’d;
But now I only hear
Its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar,
Retreating to the breath
Of the night-wind, down the vast edges drear
And naked shingles of the world.
(From Dover Beach by Matthew Arnold, c.1851.

…